The invention relates to a vehicle, in particular a motor-car, provided with a sliding roof assembly comprising a sliding panel which is mounted in a frame so as to be movable forward and backward, and which closes a ventilating opening in its forward position and releases this ventilating opening in its opened position, while a roof plate, fastened on the frame, forms a covered portion behind this ventilating opening underneath which the sliding panel extends at least partly when in its opened position, whereby the assembly consisting of the frame, the sliding panel and the roof plate is inserted from above into a substantially rectangular opening in the vehicle roof and is connected on the vehicle roof by means of a peripheral supporting rim of this assembly, while the upper side of this assembly is provided with a cover.
In a known embodiment of such a sliding roof assembly, the upper surface of this assembly in the mounted state protrudes for some distance, generally a distance of about 1 cm, above the vehicle roof that surrounds the assembly. This is caused by the fact that the peripheral supporting rim of the assembly is slightly cambered in the direction parallel to the adjacent edge of the opening in the vehicle roof, corresponding to the shape of the underlying roof portion of the vehicle, but is bent in the direction perpendicular to this edge of the opening according to a considerably smaller radius of curvature than that of the underlying roof portion of the vehicle, the space between this peripheral supporting rim and the vehicle roof being filled with a filler element that is capable of deformation under pressure.
Although this known sliding roof assembly operates excellently in practice, the stepwise difference in height between the assembly and the vehicle roof which surrounds the assembly may be considered a drawback both from an aesthetic and from an aerodynamic point of view.